What is Maya? Ramana Maharshi Talk No280 | Ramana Maharshi Teachings | Sri Ramanasramam Books

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Talk 280.
D.: Can you help me to get rid of Maya?
M.: What is Maya?
D.: Attachment to the world.
M.: Was the world in your deep sleep? Was there attachment to it?
D.: There was not.
M.: Were you there or not?
D.: Maybe.
M.: Then do you deny having existed in sleep?
D.: I do not.
M.: You are therefore now “the same one as there was in sleep.”
D.: Yes.
M.: What is it then that raises the question of Maya just now?
D.: The mind was not in sleep. The world and the attachment to it
are of the mind.
M.: That is it. The world and the attachment to it are of the mind,
not of the Self.
D.: I was ignorant in sleep.
M.: Who says that he was ignorant? Is he not ignorant now? Is he a
Jnani?
Ignorance is now mentioned by the contaminated Self here.
D.: Was the Self pure then in sleep?
M.: It did not raise any doubts. It did not feel imperfect or impure.
D.: Such Self is common to all, even in a dead body.
M.: But the man in sleep or in dead body does not raise questions.
Consider who raises questions. It is you. Were you not in sleep?
Why was there no imperfection?
The pure Self is simple Being. It does not associate itself with
objects and become conscious as in the wakeful state. What
you now call consciousness in the present state is associated
consciousness requiring brain, mind, body, etc., to depend upon.
But in sleep consciousness persisted without these.
D.: But I do not know the consciousness in sleep.
M.: Who is not aware of it? You admit “I am”. You admit “I was” in
sleep. The state of being is your self.
D.: Do you mean to say that sleep is Self-Realisation?
M.: It is the Self. Why do you talk of Realisation? Is there a moment
when the Self is not realised?
If there be such a moment, the other moment might be said to be
one of Realisation. There is no moment when the Self is not nor
when the Self is not realised. Why pick out sleep for it? Even now
you are Self-realised.
D.: But I do not understand.
M.: Because you are identifying the Self with the body. Give up the
wrong identity and the Self is revealed.
D.: But this does not answer my question to help me to get rid of
Maya, i.e., attachment.
M.: This attachment is not found in sleep. It is perceived and felt now.
It is not your real nature.
On whom is this accretion?
If the Real Nature is known these exist not. If you realise the Self
the possessions are not perceived. That is getting rid of Maya.
Maya is not objective, that it could be got rid of in any other way